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DEEP Commissioner Katie Dykes: We need nature-based climate change solutions.
More trees planted in the Hill. Less pollution in the West River.
These are some of the ideas for what to do with $1 million now available from the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, a longtime cap-and-invest program for power plants in the northeast.
Cities, towns and non-governmental organizations will soon be able to apply for chunks of what may be the largest state, urban forestry grant in the last 20 years.
“It might be bigger than the last 20 years cumulatively,” Connecticut Division of Forestry supervisor Doug Emmerthal mused.
Lee Cruz of the Community Foundation for Greater New Haven: This is for our children.
State environmental officials announced the new pot of money during an event at Edgewood Park on Monday. The state aims to target the money towards tree plantings, tree maintenance and other “green” infrastructure in low-income communities.
“We know that to reduce carbon emissions, we need these types of nature-based solutions,” said Department of Energy and Environmental Protection (DEEP) Commissioner Katie Dykes.
The officials present on Monday highlighted that New Haven is already doing the kind of work they would like to see elsewhere in the state.
“This city gets it right,” said Audubon Connecticut Policy Director Robert LaFrance.
The press conference served a dual purpose — to announce the grant and encourage citizens to call their representatives to support H.B. 6441. The bill allows cities and towns to collect a conveyance fee on property transactions over $150,000. If a city or town chooses to adopt the fee, it would have to devote all of those dollars to climate resiliency projects.
The fees would be progressive — higher with more expensive property transactions — to avoid impacts to low-income homebuyers. H.B. 6441 has made it out of the General Assembly’s Joint Committee on Environment.
The conveyance fee is one of the recommendations the Governor’s Council on Climate Change made in their first report this January. The group has been meeting virtually for a year and is co-chaired by Fair Haven’s own Lee Cruz.
URI Director Colleen Murphy-Dunning: Let’s plant more trees than we lose.
The $1 million total would be split into large and small grants. The large grants would go to more established groups like the Urban Resources Initiative (URI). URI plants roughly 500 trees a year in New Haven, with the help of the formerly incarcerated employees at EMERGE Connecticut.
This double win for the environment and for people looking for a second chance is the kind of project DEEP wants to fund.
URI Director Colleen Murphy-Dunning plans to apply for the grant when the specifics go online. She envisioned using the money to plant more trees. Right now, URI mostly breaks even with the number of diseased trees cut down by the city every year. She would like to increase New Haven’s tree canopy instead, particularly in low-income neighborhoods with fewer trees than wealthy neighborhoods like Westville and East Rock.
Scientists broadly know that trees cool neighborhoods and provide a host of other environmental benefits. A research component of this grant will allow Connecticut environmentalists to get a more specific grasp on how many trees will be needed to offset rising temperatures in New Haven, for example.
The smaller grants could go to groups like the Friends of Edgewood Park, which clears paths and maintains the old trees in the park. The state would provide technical support along with the grant, with the hope of building capacity among smaller organizations and less experienced governments than New Haven.
The Friends of Edgewood Park has been working on a project to stabilize part of the West River bank and prevent erosion. Volunteer Frank Cochran imagined spending dollars on that project if he could. Willows are a good choice for stream banks, because they are low-maintenance and grow quickly.
He would also accept a redwood tree, should anyone chose to give him one to plant, after finding a similarly old and large tree in the park last year. He is still disappointed that tree turned out to be a Sawara cypress instead.
DEEP plans to open the application for the grant this summer.
Watch the beginning of the press conference below.